Biz & IT —

Bill Gates: “the GPL, which we disagree with”

"There's free software and then there?s open source," began Bill Gates, in …

At the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, Bill Gates gave his thoughts on where the pharmaceutical industry was going, and where it should be going. However, he also slipped up a bit and criticized the GNU General Public License (GPL). The GPL is a widely used (including by the Linux kernel) free software license. Wired's Thomas Goetz took notes on Bill Gates' response to a question from the audience regarding whether Gates thought Microsoft should use open source software in health research:

"There's free software and then there’s open source," he suggested, noting that Microsoft gives away its software in developing countries. With open source software, on the other hand, "there is this thing called the GPL, which we disagree with." Open source, he said, creates a license "so that nobody can ever improve the software," he claimed, bemoaning the squandered opportunity for jobs and business. [Editor's note: Yes, Linux fans, we're aware of how distorted this definition is.] He went back to the analogy of pharmaceuticals: "I think if you invent drugs, you should be able to charge for them," he said, adding with a shrug: "That may seem radical."

What Bill Gates is really saying here is that he could not have built the largest software company in the world if he had used the GPL. This is a no-brainer. However, he should have acknowledged that Linux is doing very well right now, well enough to be worthy of teaming up with Microsoft. Gates has been known to praise the competition, so it is a bit disappointing to see him say these things about open source, especially considering the many pro-open source decisions Microsofthasrecentlymade.